Original Theatre online has produced some very interesting, good quality streamed shows over the last year including the pertinent and touching Good Grief and the intriguing monologues of Barnes People. The latest full-length play is Ben Brown’s new political drama, A Splinter Of Ice which is a fascinating exploration of friendship and isolation of spies and spy literature. Captured by Tristan Shepherd with three cameras on the stage of the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, it justifies the relatively high streamed price and is available until 31st July.
The play focuses on the last meeting of the author and former MI6 agent Graham Greene with one of the notorious Russian spies, Kim Philby in his rather poorly furnished flat in Moscow in February 1987 and is based on true events and relationships. Their conversation reviews their past time together and the motivations for their actions and the way they have been portrayed in novels and the media since. It is wordy with lots of necessary exposition, but the writing engages us both in understanding a most significant episode in the cold war and the understanding and friendship between these two famous people.
